Word Document Accessibility
This is a short sample page with brief instructions to guide you in creating an accessible Word document.
Use Headings
Use the headings in hierarchal order found on the styles list on the home tab; don’t skip heading levels going down.
Benefits
Using headings adds many benefits to your document:
- Add structure to your document for accessibility
- Format all of one style at the same time</lhttps://www.xavier.edu/disability-services/accommodations/assistive-technology/text-to-speechi>
- Move headings around with their content attached
- Auto-generate a table of contents, with links for headings
Use Lists
Using the built in list functions allows the items in a list to be “linked” together. Lists can be ordered (numbered, lettered) or unordered (bullets). You also have the option of creating multi-level lists.
Structure tables
Tables can be very useful tools. Here are a few tips to help you structure them accessibly:
- Use to hold data relationships, not to format
- Keep it simple!
- Don’t split or merge cells
- Don’t have completely blank rows or columns
- Add visual headers in the table design style
- Add header row in the table properties
Links
Every link should be labeled with meaningful text. This text should not need to rely on surrounding text. If the same text is used to label a link, the link should be the same.
Visuals
No important information should be conveyed only in a visual manner. This may include pictures, graphs, colors, SmartArt, etc.
Alt Text
Add alt text to the description box found under format picture in the right-click menu.
Alt text should accurately represent the content and function of the image in a succinct manner. It should not be redundant or repetitive of the text surrounding.
As a general rule of thumb, alt text should be no longer than a "tweet" (140 characters) or two sentences.
Colors
Make sure that information is not only conveyed using color. A common example of this is required fields or negative numbers. These things should also have some other indicator of the meaning the color holds (i.e. asterisk or negative symbol).